Road Trip!
December 30, 2007
Sometimes, just getting to the fishing spot is an adventure in itself! That was definitely the case when I made the 19-hour, nearly 900-mile pilgrimage to Redmond, OR to pick up a new boat. As you might imagine, I got a little bored and started snapping pics of the journey with my camera phone….
All I can say is Highway 97 between Weed, CA and Redmond, OR is a loooooonely road! Every now and then I’d pass through some small town that I’d never heard of. I can’t remember the name of this town in northeastern California, but it was small and remote! There’s about a 5-hour stretch on HWY 97 that’s a blur of low evergreens, ice and junk food. After several hourse of driving, I couldn’t remember how I had gotten there. It all looked the same and was like I was on a treadmill…
As a huge fan of fishing the Lower Klamath River, I was very excited to get my first-ever glance at the upper end of the river near Klamath Falls. Not exactly a scenic wonderland here along the road. No falls in sight, either…
On the other hand, Klamath Lake looked very interesting:
Another small town and another fuel stop. Hmm….14 MPG….do they make hybrid F-250’s yet??
Redmond, OR…FINALLY!!! I left the house at 4:15 AM and finally arrive here at 1 PM. They still make wooden Indians????
Thehe sesame chicken at the new Chinese joint in town got my spirits up!
And, drum roll please…the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the new boat! A super sweet 15-foot Fish Craft Super Cat tunnel hull!
The sucky thing about buying a boat so far away (I’ve done it several times) is you drive all that way, hop out and oooh and ahhh for a bit and then, turn right back around and head home. Rather than head immediately home, I diverted over to the coast to meet up with some buddies and, hopefully, put the boat in the water. It was 10:30 PM as I drove through Grants Pass, OR. Only 3 hours to go!!
Highway 101 just north of Arcata, CA. Even after pounding a bag of Oreo’s and a jumbo-sized Rock Star, I’m getting pretty bleary-eyed….I roll in at 1:24 AM after 19 hours and 897 miles! Of course, as soon as my head hit the pillow I was WIDE AWAKE!
The next day, the flows were extremely low, so we let the new boat sit on the trailer and hit the river on foot…and found some nice, fresh steelies.
Then, it was another 7-hour drive home. Funny thing was, it seemed like nothing…One of these days, I may even put that boat in the water!
Those fishcraft boys sure put out some nice stuff. I put that raft on my xmas list but I guess Santa didn’t have enough room in the sled this year!!!
I made a trip somewhat near where you went to pick up a boat in late December. I picked up another drift boat from a guy in Sprague River, Ore. The Williamson River east of Chiloquin was actually pretty scenic.